The Cork-based group, O'Callaghan Properties Ltd, has sought planning permission for a £300 million complex which would be one of the biggest leisure and retail developments in the State.
The planning application was yesterday lodged with Cork Corporation. If successful, some 107 acres adjoining the southern approach to the Lee Tunnel, now nearing completion, will be developed to provide 2,400 permanent jobs, 1,000 part-time jobs and 2,000 construction jobs.
The project, according to O'Callaghan Properties, is groundbreaking in its scope and size and will provide Cork with an immense leisure/retail complex.
The plan is that as well as extensive retail outlets, the complex will house a national trade centre and exhibition centre as a shop window for Irish goods. There will be an 11-screen cinema, a hotel and a retail park.
In what is described as a concomitant development, McCarthy Developments of Cork is also planning to build 500 residential units on land acquired from O'Callaghan Properties on the site.
According to a spokesman for O'Callaghan Properties, an environmental impact statement will be submitted to the planning authority outlining all relevant information concerning the development and its possible effect on the environment.
There will be selective treefelling. Every effort will be made to restore the natural environment if the complex is completed.
Last night, Mr Owen O'Callaghan said the project would be financed through bank borrowings as well as a syndicate he was assembling.
The planning application, he added, was the biggest submitted to Cork Corporation.
Mr O'Callaghan added that having visited the southern side of the tunnel works 2 1/2 years ago, he realised the potential of the vacant land in the vicinity. He offered to buy it from Cork Corporation but was told the land would have to go for public tender. In the event, 26 national and international tenders were received by the corporation, but his bid won out, at a cost to his company of £41.3 million.
"I could see the development potential because it's a fantastic site right next to a major infrastructural project. I know that it's expensive land but if I didn't think this was a secure investment, I would not have gone into it. I think it's safe to say that our project is not just a shopping centre - what we envisage is more like a new town in the Mahon area of Cork."
Industry sources in Cork last night said the tunnel was an example of how investment in infrastructure could benefit the overall economy of a region such as Cork. When the tunnel opens next May, it is expected 25,000 cars will use it daily for access to new roads to the eastern seaboard and Dublin.
Within five years, it is expected that the volume of vehicles using the tunnel - the first of its kind in the Republic - will rise to 40,000.